FIG. 1 depicts a side view of portion of a conventional energy assisted magnetic recording (EAMR) disk drive 10. The conventional EAMR disk drive 10 includes a recording media 12, a conventional slider 20, and a conventional laser diode 30 that are typically attached to a suspension (not shown). The conventional slider 20 has a leading edge 22, a trailing edge 26, and a back side 24. Although termed “edges”, the leading edge 22 and trailing edge 26 are surfaces of the slider 20. The leading edge 22 and trailing edge 26 are so termed because of the direction the conventional media 12 travels with respect to the EAMR transducer 28. Other components that may be part of the conventional EAMR disk drive 10 are not shown. The conventional slider 20 is typically attached to the suspension at its back side 24. A conventional EAMR transducer 22 is coupled with the slider 20.
The laser diode 30 is coupled in proximity to the EAMR transducer 22. Light from an emitter (not separately shown) on the conventional laser diode 30 is provided to a grating (not shown) of conventional EAMR transducer 22. The light from the laser diode 30 coupled into the grating is then provided to a waveguide (not shown). The waveguide directs the light toward the conventional media 12, heating a small region of the conventional media 12. The conventional EAMR transducer 22 magnetically writes to the conventional media 12 in the region the conventional media 12 is heated.
FIG. 2 depicts a conventional method 50 for fabricating a portion of the conventional EAMR disk drive 10. For simplicity, only a portion of the method 50 is described. The emitter on the conventional laser diode 30 is aligned to the grating on the conventional EAMR transducer 28. The laser diode 30 is then mounted, for example to the slider 20 or flexure (not shown), via step 54. The EAMR heads may then be separated, via step 56. For example, the substrate holding the EAMR transducers 28 may be cleaved or otherwise cut into individual sliders 20. The front side of the substrate, on which the EAMR transducer 28 is fabricated, becomes the trailing edge 26 of the slider 20. Alternatively, the EAMR heads might be separated prior to the laser diode 30 being mounted. However, in both cases, the laser diode is mounted in proximity to the EAMR transducer 26. The fabrication of the conventional drive 10 may then be completed. For example, the conventional EAMR head including the conventional slider 20 and conventional EAMR transducer 28 may be mounted on a flexure and then in a disk drive.
Although the conventional EAMR disk drive 10 may function, manufacturing the conventional EAMR disk drive 10 at an acceptable cost and with sufficient optical efficiency may be problematic. More specifically, aligning the laser diode with the EAMR transducer 28 may be difficult. Passive alignment, which relies on preset features such as fiducials, can be relatively easily accomplished. However, the laser diode 30 may not be closely aligned with the EAMR transducer 28 after passive alignment. As a result, less of the optical energy from the laser diode may be coupled into the EAMR transducer 28. The optical efficiency of the EAMR transducer 28 and, therefore, performance may be adversely affected. Conversely, more closely aligning the laser diode 30 with the EAMR transducer 28 may be costly and/or time consuming. Such active alignment relies upon monitoring the output of the EAMR transducer 28 near the surface that will be the ABS. Typically, the output is near-field emission from a near-field transducer (NFT) at the ABS. However, this process is difficult. Alignment may thus be time consuming, more costly and may not result in significantly improved alignment. Manufacturability of the EAMR disk drive 10 may be adversely affected.
Accordingly, what is needed is a system and method for improving manufacturability and performance of an EAMR disk drive.